That’s the thing, it doesn’t have to happen. It has to catch enough headlines that Shell can say:

“As part of our environmental commitments we plan to sell only carbon neutral methane by 2040”

Then they proceed to do nothing in the “hopes” that this becomes cost effective in time, while continuing to invest in natural gas infrastructure, and while we continue to investing in using their “soon to be neutral” fuel.

Finally, when 2035 or so rolls around they quietly shift the goal posts and we keep on letting them pollute.

And if you’re wondering why this sounds familiar…

https://www.carbonbrief.org/shell-abandons-2035-emissions-target-and-weakens-2030-goal/

All getting hyped about CCS or “renewable” “drop-in replacements” for fossil fuels does is further entrench fossil fuel companies as the “center” of our carbon commitments, while they are 100% disincentivized to act.

Unless this tech is paired with a $1000/tonne carbon tax, its a scapegoat.

If it can be done cheaper this way…

That “if” is doing a lot lot of heavy lifting, and exactly the excuse a lot of fossil fuel companies and municipalities will use for inaction.

Just to be clear, renewable energy credits are different than carbon offsets, and easier to guarantee because they’re often tied directly to a metered renewable energy source.

That said, there are still junk RECs on the market, like those tied to energy that was produced up to 2 decades ago that nobody got around to claiming / retiring. Or RECs tied to energy sources that may have happened regardless of the REC sale.

This is great in theory, but all it really does is give us a reason to cling onto a dirty, leaky natural gas grid. Much like CCS, this technology allows fossil fuel producers to continue business as usual under the promise of one day maybe sortof going green, and if this system leaks much more than ~1%, its not actually “carbon neutral” in useful human timescales, because its converting CO2 into something 50-100x more impactful on the climate

Maybe buy a few companies I really hate and just shut them down?

This might actually put a dent in the €5B :D all of the rest you listed is probably another 5% max.

€5B is an unfathomably large number

Investments, trust funds, paying off debt and my mortgage. Set up enough in investments that I’ll always have a million or so in post-tax interest income.

Conservatively, well call this 5% locked up

Trust funds and investments for my family so they have money coming in.

Not sure how big your family is, or how much you want to have them coming in, but well call this +5%

10% spent

Remodel my house. +0.1%

Rent a condo in Wrigleyville during the Cubs season. Rent a condo in Mesa during spring training. +0.01%

Open a bar or two. +0.1%

Hire a dietician/personal cook. +0.01%

Buy a handful of cars, the most extravagant would probably be a Catterham. +0.01%

Open an automotive shop to restore cars. I know that’ll be a loss but it will be a good hobby for something I like to do. +0.1%

Travel a bunch. Follow the Cubs for a season and go to every game. +0.01%

Buy dual citizenship somewhere. +0.01%

Donate to AOCs campaign. +0.1%

Club 33 membership. +0.01%

Occasionally take private jets when I fly, but pick up families that are flying coach when I go and bring them along for free. It’s no fun being alone. +0.01%

Do a bunch of the traditional billionaire things like go fishing on a private yacht. +0.1%

Finally not stress about going out to dinner. +0.001%

Now were to a whopping 10.571% “spent” with most of it invested in ways that will pay back entirely in your lifetime. What do you do with the other 4.5B?

If it was directly analogous, people would have been denying that sickness happened at all, just like how there are far too many people who don’t believe that climate change is happening.

I don’t know that this is necessarily true - I can’t speak to everyone, and there’s always crazies who take things to the extremes, but most deniers I’m aware of don’t deny that the climate is changing, they deny that it’s caused by humans, and they doubt the forecasts.

I think we’re, to a certain degree, past the days of bringing a snowball onto the Senate floor to disprove climate change, and into the “humans aren’t doing this, the planet just goes through phases” denial, which is to a certain degree similar to people denying germ theory insisting instead it’s just demons / God’s will.

People are finally seeing and experiencing the record setting heat waves, polar vorteces, unprecedentedly early Cat 5 hurricanes, and rising sea levels, they just refuse to accept fault, or agree that it’s worth sacrificing “the Economy” to try and stop it from getting worse.

I self host, and drop encrypted backups onto a cloud storage provider. If anything, cheap storage is going to cost me more because I’ll be inclined to back more up.

Sooo I probably shouldn’t hold onto any hope for that Gothic reboot we were promised?

Also, what portion of the decayed tree becomes soil. Sure some CO2 is released back out, but the net increase in soil over the tree’s life is where the savings are.

Anaerobic vs aerobic decay is largely about the difference in short-term impacts. Anaerobic decay releases methane which is much more potent than CO2 in the short term, but naturally breaks down into CO2 over a hundred or so years, which is a long time for the generations of humans dealing with climate change, but a blip on the timescales of forests.

Hard to fault them though, hard to imagine they are expecting high enough sales volume to drive the price down

Agreed, kind of a bold assertion to throw out without proof against a highly rated international charity

Charity Navigator 4-star 99%

Guidestar Platinum

Charity Watch A-

Looks like there were some issues with transparency 5-10 years ago (Google “Pro Publica Red Cross”), but I’m not finding any recent follow-ups and they’re scoring high marks for transparency now. They pretty consistently spend ~90% of every dollar donated on programs and are generally well-respected.

Are they a perfect charity? Probably not. But are they doing good? Absolutely.

If you want to donate money elsewhere, by all means go for it. Doctors Without Borders, and World Central Kitchen are great international charities, and local food banks in impacted communities can make your dollar go further than just about anyone else.

But also remember money isn’t the only donation the Red Cross accepts - as with any major disaster, blood will be in short supply, and there is unequivocally no better network for blood donations than the Red Cross.

Reel Big Fish - Another F.U. Song

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ9YVF-wyho

Something something paradox of tolerance. Something something hate speech.

What kind of programs would benefit most from being ported to retro consoles?

Obviously Doom.

For the ADHD crowd this is often literally how it works.

No stimulants? My restless leg will shake this whole building down. With stimulants? I can sit there at my desk, happy as a clam.

This complex will be world’s first large-scale “green steel” project, according to H2 Green Steel, the Swedish company behind the multi-billion-dollar mill.

Electric Arc Furnaces everywhere - “am I a joke to you?”

Sarcasm aside, I know EAF has its challenges, but this article really acts like coal-fired plants are the only alternative to hydrogen.

The boycott makes a innocent sufferer of the bus company. Had the company defiled city and state laws its franchise would have been canceled. The quarrel of the Negroes is with the law. It is wrong to hold the company hostage.

-The Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery Alabama, Dec 8, 1955

The white man’s economic artillery is far superior, better emplaced, and commanded by more experienced gunners.

Second, the white man holds all the offices of government machinery. There will be white rule for as far as the eye can see.

Are these not the facts of life?

Let us be specific, concrete. What is the cost is the bus boycott to the Negro community? Does any Negro leader doubt that the resistance to the registration of Negro voting has been increased? Is economic punishment of the bus company - an innocent hostage to the laws and customs of Alabama - worth the price of a block to the orderly registration of Negro voters?

-The Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery Alabama, Dec 13, 1955

What I’m trying to say here is, fuck off Washington Post with your “why don’t you protest the way I want, quietly in the corner” bullshit.

Just want to add, not only is it a ridiculous number because of sales, there’s also free games that wreck the numbers.

Glancing at my unplayed library, sure there’s a bunch of leftovers from Humble Bundles I got ages ago for what amounted to a fraction of retail, but there’s also things like BioShock 1&2 Remastered - games that were given out FOR FREE to owners of the original. I’ve PLAYED the originals, but I assume the powers that be would tell you I have $60 worth of unplayed games sitting there since I haven’t opened the remasters.

My God if I have to listen to my mother in law brag about how good of a “deal” her $10 (made up “retail”, $26) Tommy Bahama hand towels from TJ Max were one more time…